Review: Heads bang at Mayhem Festival

Trivium performed first Wednesday during the Rockstar Mayhem Festival on the main stage at Saratoga Performing Arts Center.
ERICA MILLER — THE SARATOGIAN

SARATOGA SPRINGS >> “You know what I think about people who spend 10 hours out in the sun to listen to bands?” Avenged Sevenfold lead vocalist M. Shadows asked. “I think you’re insane.”

The craziness began Wednesday as the 2014 Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival returned a deadly lineup to Saratoga Performing Arts Center, beginning with Headbang For the Highway winners My Kingdom on the Sumerian Stage at 1 p.m.

Featured bands on the Sumerian Stage were Darkest Hour, Veil of Maya, Upon A Burning Body, Second Pass and Bodycount featuring Ice-T.

“You can only play a cop on TV for so long before you wanna kill one of those [expletive],” said Ice-T, joined on stage by wife Coco and their dogs before Bodycount tore into a set including “Cop Killer.” The band’s latest album “Manslaughter” was released this June.

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Ice-T taunted the crowd and the mosh pits erupted, and a few brave crowd surfers learned after falling on their faces repeatedly that you have to surf from the front of the crowd to the back or no one sees you coming.

“It’s not a Bodycount show without someone leaving in an ambulance,” Ice-T told the crowd.

Across the lawn at the Coldcock Stage, many other fans — young, old, tattooed, pierced and even a few leather-bound and submissive — gathered to watch an equally lethal lineup as they engaged in their own crowd theatrics.

“If you hate the [expletive] world, and you hate what you see, show me a wall of death right [expletive] now,” demanded Suicide Silence lead vocalist Hernan Hermida before performing the group’s hit song “F--- Everything.”

A “wall of death” is when two walls of people form on opposing ends of the crowd and charge each other as fast as they can.

The Coldcock Stage also featured Cannibal Corpse, Miss May I, Mushroomhead, Texas Hippie Coalition and King 810.

As Cannibal Corpse finished its set, Trivium kicked off the action on the main stage, followed by English metal group Asking Alexandria and the iconic ’90s rock/metal group Korn.

Korn’s drummer Ray Luzier lead with a solo before the rest of the band joined and opened with their 1999 hit “Falling Away From Me.”

The band also performed its latest single “Hater” as well as “Got the Life” and “Did My Time.” Lead singer Jonathon Davis demonstrated his bagpipe talents performing one of the band’s classics “Shoots and Ladders.”

“Please don’t make me look like a chump in front of my sons,” Davis said, beckoning the crowd to join in as him and his sons banged heads on stage to their performance of “Blind.”

Avenged Sevenfold finished off the evening decorating the stage with two giant church windows that featured interchanging murals of skeletons and other creepy images of death and destruction, as well as live action shots of the band.

The group opened with “Shepherd of Fire” off its 2012 album “Hail to the King.”

“Let’s just get the elephant out of the room,” Shadows said. “We’re sorry we cannot do pyros at this venue.”

Shadows asked the crowd to provide their own fire by holding their lighters in the sky as the band performed “Bat Country” off its third album “City of Evil.”

The group also performed “Nightmare,” “Hail to the King” and “Almost Easy.”